Monument record MDO5965 - Field system, Pentridge

Remains of a later prehistoric or Roman field system across Pentridge Hill and Pentridge Down. Recorded by RCHME as a series of lynchets and banks surviving up to 2.7 metres in height, they appear in places to be related to the hillfort on Penbury Knoll (MDO5940), and form part of a wider complex of fields scattered across the chalk downs in the northeastern part of Dorset.

(Name - SU 041174) Field System (NR). <3>

(Centred SU 043176) Field system plotted from air photographs. <1>

Typical Iron Age/Romano-British field system on the western slope of a ridge. Strong well-defined lynchets and field banks, up to 2.7 metres high, occur in the areas SU 039174 and SU 043178, and further lynchets are visible in a fir plantation at SU 049181. <2>

Part of a group of 'Celtic' fields covering the chalklands in the north east of the county and surviving best on the steeper slopes, such as those west and north west of Penbury Knoll, where they appear almost to join the hillfort (SU 01 NW 55); [ie MDO5940]. A round barrow (SU 01 NW 51) [ie MDO5949] lies in the middle of one of the fields, but it is not clear whether it was built before or after the field was laid out. <4>

<1> Atkinson, R J C, Annotated Record Map Private 6 Sheet (R J C Atkinson Undated), Corr 6" (R J C Atkinson 1.5.49) 2 (Map). SWX1667.

<2> Swatridge, G C, Various, Field Investigators Comments GCS, F1 GCS 27-MAY-54 (Unpublished document). SWX1169.

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 118-9 [Group 85] (Monograph). SDO129.

<5> Historic England, Historic England Archive, Object Number: RCH01/091. (Index). SDO14738.

Object Title: RCHME Inventory: Dorset V (East). Scope & Content: Annotated publication proofs for Dorset V, East Dorset, published in 1974. Also includes original surveys, drawings and field notes, and unpublished material. Original survey material has been catalogued.

<6> Bowen, H C, 1990, The Archaeology of Bokerley Dyke (Monograph). SWX800.

<7> Historic England, Historic England Archive, Object Number: 884334. (Index). SDO14738.

Object Title: RCHME: Cranborne & Wimborne St Giles Celtic Fields, Pentridge, Dorset.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 213553 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 29 2022 1:50PM